Tommy's Toodling Along!

I'm very happy that Tommy has been making great progress in his training in the past few weeks. When the weather cooperates and isn't bombarding us with ice, or snow, or thawed out sloppy mud-bog conditions - we make some great headway on doing stuff! =:) My round pen has sand in it for drainage and thick grippy footing, and so far it is holding out really well. If it doesn't snow, we'll keep on pluggin' away at things!

Tommy has learned to be pretty stable and have good balance with the added weight he has to carry. We started out with doing a slow walk on Monday, and by today (Saturday), we did our first day of slow loping in both directions. I was thrilled!
"Are you sure you really want me to Go..?" "Yes Tommy...Go." It is really interesting to watch the myriad of feet positions that a young horse goes into when they are sticky and not sure what to do. It usually feels as weird as it looks. Bless his heart, he's getting the hang of moving out more freely and easily as we progress.

Motoring along at a nice relaxed jog.

This is my absolute FAVORITE picture that Craig has taken of the two of us! Both of us look like we should be in a pleasure class at a show somewhere.... =:) Nice and quiet and relaxed. Uber cool!

And the wee-bit faster endurance trot. Something I look forward to riding quite a bit in the future!

All done, good boy Tommy. I have a big "perma-grin" stuck to my face! He's such a nice kind-hearted fellow. We'll have more blog posts in the future as he progresses along under saddle.

-Shannon.